1833.] HABITS OF THE JAGUAR. 97 



skeletons were buried by the deposits of the very next year. What 

 would be the opinion of a geologist, viewing such an enormous 

 collection of bones, of all kinds of animals and of all ages, thus 

 embedded in one thick earthy mass? Would he not attribute it to 

 a flood having swept over the surface of the land, rather than to the 

 common order of things ? * 



October 12th. I had intended to push my excursion further, but not 

 being quite well, I was compelled to return by a balandra, or one- 

 masted vessel of about a hundred tons' burden, which was bound to 

 Buenos Ayres. As the weather was not fair, we moored early in the 

 day to a branch of a tree on one of the islands. The Parana is full 

 of islands, which undergo a constant round of decay and renovation. 

 In the memory of the master several large ones had disappeared, and 

 others again had been formed and protected by vegetation. They are 

 composed of muddy sand, without even the smallest pebble, and were 

 then about four feet above the level of the river; but during the 

 periodical floods they are inundated. They all present one character ; 

 numerous willows and a 'few other trees are bound together by a great 

 variety of creeping plants, thus forming a thick jungle. These thickets 

 afford a retreat for capybaras and jaguars. The fear of the latter animal 

 quite destroyed all pleasure in scrambling through the woods. This 

 evening I had not proceeded a hundred yards, before rinding indubitable 

 signs of the recent presence of the tiger, I was obliged to come back. 

 On every island there were tracks ; and as on the former excursion 

 " el rastro de los Indies " had been the subject of conversation, so in 

 this was " el rastro del tigre." 



The wooded banks of the great rivers appear to be the favourite 

 haunts of the jaguar; but south of the Plata, I was told that they 

 frequented the reeds bordering lakes : wherever they are, they seem to 

 require water. Their common prey is the capybara, so that it is 

 generally said, where capybaras are numerous there is little danger 

 from the jaguar. Falconer states that near the southern side of the 

 mouth of the Plata there are many jaguars, and that they chiefly live on 

 fish ; this account I have heard repeated. On the Parana they have 

 killed many wood-cutters, and have even entered vessels at night. 

 There is a man now living in the Bajada, who, coming up from below 

 when it was dark, was seized on the deck ; he escaped, however, with 

 the loss of the use of one arm. When the floods drive these animals 

 from the islands, they are most dangerous. I was told that a few years 

 since a very large one found its way into a church at St. Fe ; two padres 

 entering one after the other were killed, and a third, who came to see 

 what was the matter, escaped with difficulty. The beast was destroyed 

 by being shot from a corner of the building which was unroofed. They 

 commit also at these times great ravages among cattle and horses. It 

 is said that they kill their prey by breaking their necks. If driven from 



* These droughts, to a certain degree, seem to be almost periodical ; I 

 was told the dates of several others, and the intervals were about fifteen 

 years. 



